By D. Orlando LedbetterIn the coming days, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is set to join the National Football League’s $100 million club.The Falcons want to lock up Ryan for the future. He's guided the team to five straight winning seasons and two NFC South titles. General manager Thomas Dimitroff has said they want to do Ryan's deal in a creative manner that will not severely hamper the team’s long-term salary-cap situation.The topic of Ryan’s contract came up on NFL Radio SiriusXM as commentators Tim Ryan (no relation to Matt) and Pat Kirwan discussed the pending contract extension.They used New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees’ five-year, $100-million contract and Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco’s six-year, $120-million deal as comparable deals.Tim Ryan projected that Matt Ryan’s deal would be for six years, $100 million with $32 to $35 million guaranteed.Kirwan projected that the deal would be five years, $100 million with $35 million guaranteed.“He will be one of the guys to crack the $20 (million a year) mark,” Kirwan said. “That’s the market.”The Falcons salary cap structure moving forward will like the Indianapolis Colts when they had Peyton Manning directing their team. There will be a premium on young players performing on their first contracts.

Joe Linta: Ravens were dumb not to sign Flacco last yearPosted by Josh Alper on May 26, 2013

There’s been some talk this offseason that the Ravens were forced to part ways with players like Dannell Ellerbe, Ed Reed and Anquan Boldin because the contract extension given to quarterback Joe Flacco ate up too much cap space.

That may be true, but Flacco’s agent says that the blame should go to the Ravens rather than Flacco. Joe Linta told Jim Corbett of USA Today that contract extension talks with the Ravens broke down in 2012 over a difference of $1 million in non-guaranteed base salary in the final year of what would have been a six-year deal. Linta said that wound up costing the Ravens $35 million over the life of the deal and he wasn’t shy about sharing his thoughts about the Ravens’ decision-making.

“I’ve never in my life seen a dumber move. I guess people can say, ‘Well, Joe was dumb, too.’ It could have been (dumb), God forbid, if he got hurt. But $1 million to Steve Bisciotti six years from now? That’s like 100 bucks for you or me today,” Linta said.

Linta also isn’t sympathetic about the fact that the Ravens will almost certainly have to restructure the deal in three years to avoid a cap number of $28.55 million for Flacco in the 2016 season.

“I’m not apologetic for the fact this is really a three-year deal, there’s no way they can afford $29 million a couple of years from now,” Linta said. “I’m not apologetic. They chose to walk away.”

Now that the dust has settled on a busy offseason for the Ravens, the moves they made haven’t left the team looking too much worse than they would have if everyone returned from the championship team. Things likely would have played out differently if Flacco had signed last year, but it will be some time before we can know whether their “dumb” move hurt the team in the long run.

It's the same situation with Ryan. I said last year the Falcons needed to extend him, and they probably could have gotten him for less than $18 million/yr. and guaranteed money closer to $40 million rather than pushing $60 million like I expect. The annual price tag isn't the big deal, but the guaranteed money is.

But the argument against it was Ryan has won the big one. And my argument at the time was who are you going to pick up that is going to be better than Matt Ryan? The guy won 66% of his game, but because none of them had come in January (yet) he didn't deserve an extension.

Julio Jones and Sean Weatherspoon's contracts are up after 2014. Assuming both have good 2013 seasons, I would hope the Falcons don't make the same mistake of waiting for them so that their price tags get driven up.

Any day now, we will hear about Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan receiving a contract extension worth over $100 million, with probably about a third of that money being guaranteed.

Mixed emotions on this one, I can’t deny it.

First and foremost, it should be noted that Ryan is probably worth every penny of money he gets from the Falcons. He’s a quarterback that has helped guide the team to five straight winning seasons and two division titles. He’s gotten better every season, and he has some of the best weapons in the game at his disposal.

But therein lies one problem. What if those weapons are no longer there?

Tight end Tony Gonzalez is probably (are we going 98% this year?) done for his career at the end of the season. Wide receiver Roddy White isn’t getting any younger, and will be coming up for a new contract after the 2014 season. Julio Jones isn’t going to be cheap to keep around once his rookie deal is up, and running back Steven Jackson is a one or two year rental at most.

If Matty Ice doesn’t have that flock of dangerous receivers and backs to keep defenses off-balance, how much will he be able to do on his own to win games? If the players who are supporting him on offense aren’t Hall of Fame and/or All-Pro caliber, will he be able to duplicate the types of numbers he’s put up thus far in his career?

If Atlanta commits a huge chunk of cash to their quarterback, that will put a lot of pressure on future draft picks to perform exceptionally well very quickly. Regardless of how creative Atlanta’s financial minds get when structuring Ryan’s deal, there is still a finite amount of money to be spent, and a lot of it is going to end up earmarked for the starting QB.

Yes, there will be all kinds of bonuses based on performance and incentives based on targets met, but you still have to pay a large base salary to a player like Ryan.

The other question that will most likely be asked is, does Matt Ryan deserve to be in the same market price with quarterbacks like Joe Flacco and Drew Brees, who both guided their teams to Super Bowl victories before they cashed in on big paydays.

A legitimate question to be sure, and the blogosphere and twitterverse will most certainly light up with barbs being thrown from both sides of the argument.

What the Falcons can’t do is jeopardize their financial future, ability to retain important players and to sign desirable free agents. All of those are just as key to keeping a winning organization on the right track as is a top starting quarterback.

Thomas Dimitroff isn’t in his first rodeo, and there will be a way to get it done that doesn’t strain the budget and the salary cap number disproportionate to what the team needs are. It’s a tough challenge, because the team certainly doesn’t want to lose a quarterback like Ryan–but much like the Indianapolis Colts of a decade ago, they can’t put all their eggs in the basket of one player.

I don't think that this team can walk away from Ryan. They have to pay him.

That said, if they cannot pull the trigger on paying him, (and someone should have their head examined if they can't) then trade him this year and get something for him. No QBs came out this year that are worth a damn. Perhaps a team would be willing to make a blockbuster trade to bring in Ryan. (though I'm suggesting this, I don't see it happening, and don't want to see it happen.)

I HOPE that Ryan is willing to sign a deal that allows us to put the weapons around him that are necessary to win. However, I think that's a long shot, at best. More likely, Ryan is going to get 20 million a year. Unless we start drafting better, we will be competitive, but we won't have the talent to go all the way.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Bing [Bot] and 1 guest

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum